ADV Films Picks Up Rights to 'Medabots'

ADV Films has picked up the home video rights to top-rated Saturday morning cartoon “Medabots” from animation producer Nelvana and plans to launch the episodes on DVD and VHS in early spring.

The video release will be supported by licensed toys, comic books and video games, which are already popular in Japan, says ADV marketing coordinator Ken Wiatrek. The cartoon series debuted here on Fox Kids Network in September and consistently rates as the top kids show among boys between the ages of 6-11, he adds.

As the largest distributor of Japanese anime, ADV far outsells the DVD format to its “tech-savvy” audience and has discontinued VHS versions on most releases, Wiatrek notes. But children's titles like “Medabots” will still be day-and-date VHS to appeal to mass merchants and other outlets.

"With the market moving more towards DVD, we felt that releasing ‘Medabots' on DVD and VHS concurrently was the best way to capitalize on this growing trend,” explains Kevin Corcoran, ADV c.o.o., c.f.o. and senior v.p. “'Medabots' is expected to be a huge seller for us for the next few years, and releasing this on DVD right away will help secure that position."

Wiatrek says that DVD sales began eclipsing VHS sales around July 2000, but it wasn't until this August that VHS sales had gradually dwindled to an insignificant share of the company's market. ADV eliminated the VHS format with last month's new release slate, he adds.

The “Medabots” series follows the adventures of a group of kids and their unique high-performance pet robots, known as “Medabots,” who compete against each other using a specialized arsenal of unique weapons.